“Do you want Peter Taylor to be Bradford City manager next season?”

I never agreed with the decision to ‘trial’ Peter Taylor, and nothing over the last seven weeks has altered my mind on whether to entrust him with the job full time – he was the outstanding candidate when the club was recruiting in February, he is the outstanding candidate now.

Although recent results have been poor, I believe Taylor has offered plenty of evidence to suggest he can lead Bradford City back up the football ladder. His success has been his attitude and mindset; while others in his position might have tentatively tweaked the team and made the odd loan signing, conscious and fearful of the restrictions of a short-term deal, Taylor has acted like a manager already handed a two-year contract. He has made tough decisions, he has changed the playing style and he has looked at off-the-field matters and demanded resources towards improving them.

Taylor came in last February with a plan – but it wasn’t a plan to see it out the season, it was to begin building a club in the way he believes is right. The groundwork has already started; this summer will be about signing the right players towards delivering his vision. From day one Taylor has acted as though he won’t be leaving anytime soon, the club would be advised not to contemplate it either.

It would be criminally insane to judge Peter Taylor on the handful of matches he has been in charge of the club. However, the numbers of the criminally insane rise by the week – or should that be by the defeat.

After Monday’s match the police didn’t have to be called to close Manningham Lane due to the ticket office coming under siege by hordes of would be season ticket holders, but then again there was hardly a rush to acclaim Paul Jewell when he was appointed manager after a similarly dismal end to a campaign – though crucial differences are that City are currently in Division Four and don’t have a couple of million quid knocking about for new players.

Peter Taylor will be Bradford City’s manager next season and rightly so. Dismissing his claims due to an end of season game, played on a bog of a pitch and with key players missing through injury, would be stupid. But, this is Bradford City and a fair number of our fans only make their voices heard when they have destructive things to say.

All happily glum. I was as disheartened as any following the listless Macc game, but we have to look forward and towards a new season. Taylor is the best this club can hope for at this level and frankly Bradford City are currently the best Taylor can hope for. We are a match made in a basement. Scratching around in the charity shops and pound shops of our once prosperous city. The club reflecting the wider city and the wider city reflecting the club. Perhaps as the shimmering £25m mirror pool emerges in the city centre it will reflect the grandeur of City Hall, but it could equally reflect the shameful neglect of the Odeon.

Likewise at Valley Parade will a new City arise, one born from shameful boom and bust policies, a new club for a new age of parsimony and honest hard work? Or will we continue to reflect backwards towards faded thin glory of the Premier League? We have to drag ourselves from its long shadow and hopefully Peter Taylor will be the man to lead us blinking into the light of a new dawn.

On the face of it , Peter Taylor has all the credentials to be Bradford City manager. He has managerial experience at all levels of football from international to the fourth tier – League Two – of English football and, important to City, his experience at Hull City and Wycombe demonstrate a track record of winning promotions.
His Valley Parade record so far has been decidedly mixed and like, most people, I was alarmed at the depressing 2-1 home defeat against Macclesfield on Easter Monday.

I know City were missing influential players like Simon Ramsden, Michael Flynn, James Hanson and Omar Daley, but, even so, it was a poor performance. And, although I accept Peter Taylor’s criticism of the dreadful state of the Valley Parade pitch and realise how difficult it is to play decent football on it, this was a match City ought to have won.

The case for Peter Taylor focuses on his proven track record and experience and his contacts in the game. He quickly brought in loan players to freshen up City’s squad and I am sure he will have a list of summer targets.

With most of the squad out of contract in the summer, there will be radical changes to the team whoever is manager in 2010-11 – and there needs to be after another disappointing season.

Peter Taylor’s priority will be to strengthen City’s leaky defence with big central defenders suited to lower division football. For, the defence has been a weakness all season. Even when the side were showing promise in the autumn, City were still unable to hang to leads – Barnet and Northampton – and that trend has continued – look how they let a 2-0 lead slip against Dagenham.

The question for Peter Taylor’s critics is if not him then who would be City’s next manager? It must have been a difficult decision for the directors to choose between him and Steve Cotterill, but he is now at Notts County and I see another candidate, Russell Slade has been appointed at Leyton Orient so there are not too many candidates out there.

Interestingly, just after Stuart McCall left, Bury manager Alan Knill, who has a good record of lower division management at Rotherham and Bury was being mentioned as a possible summer target even if Bury win promotion. On balance, though, I would say let’s give Peter Taylor a contract and back him to build a side ready to challenge for promotion next season.

Credits

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A tale of two shopping centres

Five months of working in Sheffield does things to a man, brings revelations if you will, brings considerations.

Rotherham has become a suburb of a bigger City – or so it is commonly held down Sheffield way – but the people of the Steel City do not consider themselves to have swallowed up their neighbour but rather that it has been swallowed. “Rotherham: Suburb of Meadowhall.”

The middle of Rotherham is empty, the civic pride drained and the area that once was to be proud, all far too familiar.

The Millers address that pride in some ways – under Mark Robins at the start of this season and continuing under perennial Bradford City ire target Ronnie Moore – the battle for promotion from League Two. How much this pride can be felt by people in the Town who lost money in the administrations the club have twice suffered is debatable. People who lost out when the Bantams twice sailed the to the edge of bankruptcy have not had to watch the club celebrate big money signings the season after having a begging bowl pushed under their noses and being told that debts must be written off.

Adam Le Fondre – formerly of Rochdale – cost a record fee for the Millers while both Nicky Law Jnr this season and Eugene Bopp and Paul Shaw last were taken out of the clutches of the Bantams after we offered all we could and Rotherham trumped that offer. The increasingly iconic Woman with a B&B in Darlington would find such a sudden surge in cash hard to swallow and considering Moore previous position on clubs in administration but perhaps we underestimate the Millers boss who may flog Le Fondre in the transfer window and go around the area repaying those people who lost money. Probably not.

If Rotherham are defined by Meadowhall then they are certainly not to be viewed as a shop struggling in the credit crunch but are more like those chains that live in constant closing down sales presenting the financial face they feel most beneficial. They are able to flash the cash to land Le Fondre and Law but when the Football League ask about their plans to move back to the location they take the name from they talk about financial pressures that forced them out of Millmoor. The Football League have asked for answers from the Millers and given them a deadline for moving back to Rotherham but at present talks are ongoing about such a move and work is not due to begin until “2010/2011” and a site has yet to be found for such a development.

In the meantime the club play at The Don Valley Stadium, a stone’s throw from Meadowhall.

None of which is presented as schadenfreude nor indeed is hard to sympathise with. If Rotherham’s decline is the story of one shopping centre then Bradford’s is another – the much trumpeted Westfield development which sits as a large hole in the middle of the City Centre that begs for regeneration.

Despite much talk from City Hall and various development agencies the regeneration of Bradford City Centre remains a series of big promises with little or no delivery and the Westfield hole being a cautionary tale told by the people who want to save the Odeon building: “Let them rip this down will you? And replace it with more hollow promises that come to nothing!” would sum up their position.

Off the cuff it has been remarked that the hole should be filled with the very sort of joint community stadium which Rotherham limply seek but such thoughts are never turned to football at City Hall, a curious point because one might suspect that those regenerationists might find some like minds at Valley Parade.

At Valley Parade we have our own section who make vague and hollow promises about things improving in the future if only they can knock something down. The debate on sacking Stuart McCall is active and rich but in reading it one is reminded about the promises of the developers who knocked down Forster Square and before that The Swan Arcade which turned out to be utterly hollow.

In this metaphor Stuart McCall is the Odeon Building and his critics promise that regeneration will start following removal, Colin Todd is the Forster Square site and the big hole in the middle of Bradford is where those fans who promised that getting rid of Todd/Square would benefit us in the long run have left us.

Personally I’m not inclined to believe the promises of those who talk about sacking Stuart McCall and would put the promise they intrinsically make that the next manager will get the club rising up the leagues again alongside those of the people who brought us the hole in the middle of Bradford. They are hollow promises, and following them has led both the City and t’ City to this point.

When these clubs go shopping they test the resources that have previously taken one into the Premiership and the other half way up the league below. City’s marshalling of resources is done with a prudence – what was spent is within what can be afforded – while Rotherham seem either unbridled by such a need to trim that spending or do not believe it will be a problem for them in the future.

Assuming that Rotherham are not robbing both Peter and Paul to pay Adam then their ability to exit Millmoor is perhaps another difference between the clubs. While Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes keep within a budget that includes the price of paying former chairman Gordon Gibb to stay at Valley Parade The Millers fair thumb their noses at the former chairman turned landlord and have opted out of their home City precisely because of the cost of staying.

Imagine City leaving Valley Parade to go play at Farsley Celtic to get around paying expensive Gibb’s rent, or, if you want, imagine Wimbledon deciding they do no want the costs and effects of staying in London and so relocating to Milton Keynes. Trying to think of an FL/FA rule that allows one and not the other is a brain pickler.

Ultimately comparisons between City and Rotherham are enough to pickle the mind too. City fans consider us a far bigger team but men over fifty not connected to either club would probably say both of us are perennial lower leaguers. Rotherham have either survived two administrations and losing their ground in much ruder health than City. They did – of course – exit without a CVA the second time which in 2004 when the Bantams were preparing a second escape was penalised not by a 17 point penalty but by being thrown out of the Football League and being forced to start at the foot of the football pyramid. No two administrations are alike.

The Miller’s start to the season attracted the attentions of Barnsley to manager Mark Robins and so the investment in the likes of Le Fondre and Nicky Law Jnr paid off for him. Stuart McCall spent the summer moving players on missing out on the likes of Steve Jones because of an unwillingness to extend the wage bill without an assurance it would covered by a player exit.

Robins looked impressive to Barnsley and Moore may end up taking his team up. All at City talk about an unwillingness to risk the future of the club. In spending money to out bid us on players while under a Football League Sword of Damocles concerning moving back to their home town which they could do but do not what to it seems fair to say that the same is not true for them.

So Stuart McCall – two wins in three – faces Ronnie Moore – two administrations and a clutch of expensive players the year after – and City face Rotherham United at Valley Parade with the Bantams chasing points and the Millers promotion. Moore’s arrival replacing Mark Robbins saw the Millers stutter but since they have regained footing and sit third having drawn 2-2 with Burton last week after losing to Shrewsbury the game before. Nursing a 3-0 FA Cup drubbing (3-0 defeats now officially being considered drubbings) by Luton Town lats game one must go back to the 24th of November and a 2-0 win over model of managerial change Lincoln City for the visitor’s last win, that game seeing Adam Le Fondre score twice has he has a habit of doing. An intelligent player Le Fondre – like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before – is a reader of the game finding and exploiting weaknesses in defences.

City’s defence go into the game on the back of a clean sheet earnt with Matthew Clarke in the side filling in for the injured Zesh Rehman. Rehman is expected back and Clarke’s reward for his performance at Darlington will probably be the bench – few tears drop at Valley Parade because Clarke does not play – with Steve Williams partnering the returning City skipper. Simon Ramsden and Luke O’Brien take full back roles. Criticism of Luke O’Brien this year baffles me, I think he is performing better now than when he was player of the season and as pointed out he is doing so in the difficult environs of a 433. Simon Eastwood – who looks like he will not be given the goalkeeper gloves at Huddersfield after Christmas with Alex Smithes seemingly set to sign for fun loving Stoke then be loaned back to Legoland – will keep goal.

The 442 deployed at Darlington weighed up against the 433 Stuart McCall normally plays shows the problems City have this year. Not scoring enough goals in a 422 forces the more attacking formation of 433 which ships concessions at the back forcing us to the 442. It loops around and is only broken by players practicing, getting patterns and the continued building a team ethos which was sadly lacking last season. The 433 – which Rochdale dispensed with – will no doubt get a run out against Rotherham and perhaps the decision between which approach to take could win or lose the game in the dressing room.

Michael Flynn and Lee Bullock take two of the places and in the event of a four Scott Neilson and Simon Whaley will take the flanks. In a three James O’Brien could come back in. Stephen O’Leary and Omar Daley are some way off match fitness it is said. Stuart McCall talked up visiting midfielder Nicky Law Jnr who played for the Bantams last term. I do hope that Law shows the same commitment to getting behind the ball as he did at Valley Parade because should he then the Bantams could enjoy an afternoon of midfield freedom.

The three/four in midfield denotes a two/three up front with James Hanson a regular and Michael Boulding failing to impress since his return to the fold culminating in his storm down the tunnel on Saturday. A note here about Dave Pendleton’s excellent article in the current and always grand City Gent about Boulding and the thunderous criticism of him. Excellent points are made about both players and fans.

Gareth Evans is in line for a recall alongside Hanson in either line up. Neilson or Whaley would join in a three.

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BfB

In 2018 BfB is almost exclusively written by Michael Wood. There is a Twitter feed at @boyfrombrazil but it is not often used for conversation. You can tweet me about football at @edinhoinho but there is a high chance that I might read your tweet and not be that bothered about replying, or not read it at all.

There was a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/boyfrombrazil but it might be gone by now. There is a tendency to stay out of discussion about the articles but if you have a question or a query the best way to get it addressed is to send a mail to mail@boyfrombrazil.co.uk.